Honeymoon is Over...

We are starting to all whine a little bit about our new town... I think it is normal, as we adjust to everything...

For Maria she is whining about school, they don't go to gym often enough, they sing different songs, basically they don't do what her last class did.

For Allan he really wants his little buddy Austin...

For Michael and I we are both whining about the lousy drivers up here. They are horrible!

Not too bad in the whole scheme of things, but we all miss the island, it is still home...

Of Missing Teeth and Endless Skies...

Well, we went for a BBQ at the neighbours house the other day... you did read earlier when I said people you don't know invite you for BBQ's right? Well we went and it was fine, after a glass of wine... before that it was awkward since they were all on their 2nd or more glass of wine or bottle of beer.... when in Rome.

Anyway, we were at the BBQ and Maria opted to take a corn on the cob and proceeded to whine at me that she couldn't eat it because she had a wiggly tooth... so I told her to leave it, I turned around to help Allan have a bite of his hot dog and then turn back when Maria says "ew, there is something on my corn".

She hands me this little thing that she had in her mouth (why do they put yucky things in my hand and not on the plate?) Anyway, I thought it was just a little kernel of corn, but I noticed a bit of blood on it, so I quickly put it in a napkin so Maria wouldn't see the blood and freak out (experience with that one) I tell Maria to not eat the rest of the corn just leave it as it might hurt her wiggly tooth, when she wipes her mouth and sees blood... a lot of blood.

I tell her to open up so I can look, as she is now starting to FREAK out and when I look in, there is no tooth. Uh oh. I look around in her mouth and start to ask her questions and she is freaking because of the blood, when I think of the little yuck she handed me... I look on her plate and there it is in the napkin, the cutest, tiniest tooth you ever saw. My little girl, lost her first tooth. However, my little girl is still freaking out, "I didn't know it would bleed!" she keeps saying at me, quite accusingly like I did this to her... So the fellow whose house it is tells her that if she leaves out a glass of water it will turn the colour of the tooth-fairies dress to try to stop her crying, which did work, but now I have to see if I have unpacked the food colouring, but all the same, she was now a happy kid. I have nice neighbours.

On a completely different note... I love the sky here, it is huge. I have a ton of pictures too, a few aren't bad.

Perspective...

Before moving to Fort St John I thought "Oh my god that is so far up north, so far from everything... it is in the middle of nowhere."

Now that I am here, it feels like everywhere else... it doesn't feel remote at all, in fact it is kind of busy. the only thing that seems a bit odd to me is the flatness of it and the lack of ocean... hm.

On a side note though... I was up last night and the night before due to Allan's bad dreams, I look out the window to hopefully see some northern lights. I do not see northern lights though because the sky was already becoming light... at 2:30 in the morning... I can't even imagine what the solstice will be like.

Horseshoes...

Well, it seems our move up here was definitely a good decision as far as employment goes... the pulp mill where Hubby was working has closed its doors. There was a buyer lined up to rescue the mill from bankruptcy, but the deal fell through and now a lot of people that mean a lot to us are out of work, and many of them are close but not quite ready for retirement. I really hope they can figure out something...

Meanwhile we are breathing a little sigh of relief... whew.

Some things I have noticed since arriving in the north...

• Driving home from Dawson Creek at 10:30 at night... we chased the sunset the whole way
• Moose!
• Sunny days almost everyday... but also wind.
• Parks everywhere
• Bike path from one end of town to the other, and even I could ride on it since it is flat!
• Lots of trucks...
• Very different birds, some are the same but there are many I don't recognize
• Kids everywhere, and many families have more than two kids... there are quite a few with more than three!
  
• People invite you over even when they don't know you
• kids play in the front yard...

And Here We are...

Hello! Well, here we are in Fort St John and a little over one week has passed since we arrived (there were some technical issues to delay internet connection... as in our service provider forgot to hook it up!) Anyway, it has been an extremely eventful and FULL two weeks since I last posted...

I never expected it would be so very hard to leave Ladysmith, but man was it. I still get a bit misty thinking about the goodbyes but I am almost through it. I was only in Ladysmith for three years, but I was totally in love, so bear with me. Anyhow, there were many goodbyes... there was the goodbye to the LaFF board, then there was goodbye to Allan's preschool (which was Maria's before his) and goodbye to his little buddies. There was goodbye to Maria's kindergarten and all of her friends, there was goodbye to all of my friends many of whom took me out for one last dinner! The goodbyes to all of the relatives in Duncan, my sister and family on Saltspring and finally were the goodbyes to my closest friend Chantal and my sister, Kathy and her girls... then there was saying goodbye to the house, the town, the island... I think I bawled for days and I didn't stop until we were on the ferry for about half an hour!

Once I calmed down and we set off, we managed to hit the worst in weather - it snowed on us from Whistler all the way up the Prince George (where we stayed overnight) and the next day... until we got about three hours from Fort St John and it turned to rain. I haven't been so glad to see rain for a long time! But yay, it was rain, not snow! There was also very little snow on the ground anywhere up here, just in the odd shady patch... whew.

So the kids were thrilled to be in our new house and they ran around like crazy while the reality of our decision hit Hubby and I like a brick. We took turns doing the "what have we done?" routine for the first 24 hours, all the while trying to keep a good face on for the kids. Once our "stuff" arrived with the movers we had so much on our minds there was no more time for reflection and we started to settle in.

Maria's first day at kindergarten was not good. Maria panicked and the whole thing was not good but it was just a meet and greet with the teacher and kids so it was relatively short. The 2nd day was excellent. Her classmates made her queen of the day and she made friends with several of them and came out with a smile on her face... whew! She has some adjusting to do though as it is a lot more french than she was used to, in fact I don't think the teacher speaks English during class at all, but Maria is a smart kid and I know she will catch on quickly. Maria has also started t-ball which is just across the street from our house and she loves it.

Allan is quite upset to not be in pre-school anymore, but I couldn't get him in until the fall, so in the meantime I have him and Maria in gymnastics and they are both enjoying that too.

The best part for the kids are all the other kids. Our street is absolutely loaded with kids, in fact I think there is only one house that doesn't have kids. Just across the street is a girl Maria's age who is very nice and has been over almost daily since we got here! The kids are rarely in the back yard, they play in the front yard riding bikes and playing all ages together... it is nice.

I am starting to find my way around town now, it took a while and I am starting to see a lot of the beauty of this place, which I couldn't see at first. It isn't like Vancouver Island where the beauty is right in front of you and you couldn't miss it, but it is there, you just have to look for it a little bit. Some of the vista's and valleys and fields are spectacular and once I get my camera going again... I will try to show them to you.